How to troubleshoot WordPress issues

This article discusses how to troubleshoot problems with WordPress.

Troubleshooting WordPress

WordPress is a complex and modular piece of software with many components. If you encounter a problem running WordPress on your site, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Use the following techniques and guidance to help identify and solve problems with WordPress.

Disable plugins and themes

Plugins and themes are a major source of WordPress problems. Perhaps the most common and well-known of these problems is when WordPress displays blank pages (also known as the “white screen of death”). By selectively disabling plugins and themes, you can determine which component is causing a problem. For information about how to do this, please see this article.

Enable debugging

WordPress includes a debugging feature that can make it much easier to determine where a problem is occurring. For information about how to enable and use the debugging feature in WordPress, please see this article.

Other common issues

Here are some other common WordPress issues and information about how to troubleshoot them:

• Database connection errors: The “Error establishing a database connection” error message is a common WordPress problem. For information about how to diagnose and resolve this issue, please see this article.
• “Unavailable for scheduled maintenance”: You may receive a “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” message, even though you did not place WordPress in maintenance mode. For information about how to diagnose and resolve this issue, please see this article.
• WordPress heartbeat: The WordPress heartbeat may cause performance issues on your site or cause “The Connection Has Been Reset” message to appear in visitors' web browsers. For more information, please see this article.
• WordPress cron: The built-in WordPress cron routine may also cause performance issues on your site. For more information about how to disable the default WordPress cron job and create your own cron job, please see this article.

A few words about performance

Your site may not be experiencing a specific problem or issue, but just running slowly in general. If so, you may want to consider installing the A2 Optimized for WordPress plugin. It contains several optimizations that can significantly improve WordPress performance. For more information about the A2 Optimized for WordPress plugin, please see this article.

More Information

The official WordPress documentation site has many more ideas and techniques for troubleshooting WordPress problems. For more information, please visit https://codex.wordpress.org/Troubleshooting.